Village life and city life

1. Village life and city life These resources can be used for Cross-curricular topic work involving children’s different languages Language classes in the community MFL classes See also resource sheet, scheme of work and Living Together powerpoint (links)

2. Have you visited a village in Bangladesh or another country? What was it like? What did people grow there? What did they eat there? What food can you see here? What are the women doing? How many families live in each house? What do people do in the courtyard?

3. Village courtyard scene • courtyard is used as living space for extended family: for socialising, drying and sorting rice as well as for drying laundry • women have gathered stacks of hay for cow feed • trees are for produce for family eg. banana, betel nut (tall palms), coconut (smaller palms) • women are walking on the rice and turning it over with their feet so it dries more quickly • one family lives in each gor (house), the extended family lives in the bari (several houses around central courtyard) • the whole family group shares work and produce • in the evenings everyone gathers in the courtyard to tell stories

4. Amader gram: Our village Amader choto gram choto choto ghor Our village with little little houses Thaki shetha shobe mile nai keho por We all live together in harmony Parar shokole chele mora bai bai With all the villagers being brothers Ak shathe kheli ar patshala jai We play and go to school together Amader choto gram maer shoman Our village is like a mother Alo diye bayo diye bachayeche pran Giving us light and air on which we survive

5. Where do families live in a city? What’s different from living in a village? What jobs do people do in a city? What’s different from working in a village?

6. Urban scene • office block and rickshaws • crowded street, people trying to cross amongst rickshaws and buses • family may live and work in smaller units than in village • city jobs could include rickshaw driving, market trading, factory work, office work • if families have migrated to city, may have less extended family life • the rhythm of working life will be different and social life may be organised differently

7. Basha shohore: City home Baba tar make niye thake dakar bashai Father lives with his mother at home in Dhaka Sweet ar icecream khabo thaki ashai I hope to have sweets and ice cream  Gari chole riksha chole shara din rath Cars are driven, rickshaws are driven day and night Chape pore kotho bange pa-hath Many a foot and hand is broken, caught in jams  Chutir dine pran bore jai cinema We go to the cinema to our heart’s content during the holidays Ekti poisha dao go moray bole bikari ma ‘Give us a penny’ says the begging mother

8. Bengali keywords on village and city life • In primary school, children helped non-Bengali classmates to write words in transliterated Bengali or English • Children could use words to form sentences or write questions, in any language

9. Children’s responses